Apparently, during the tribute concert in Montreal, while private pictures and videos of Leonard were shown, there was a mesmerizing song being played. I first thought it was a song that I had never heard, but when I listened closely to the words I discovered it was actually a new recording of the song "Book of longing", totally different from the KCRW demo version we heard back in 2006.
Someone took a video of it and put it on youtube, but it has since disappeared.
Does someone know more about that recording? When was it recorded and is there a chance that it might be released someday? I really hope so. I always loved the KCRW demo version of "Book of Longing", but this new version totally blew me away.

The song sounds like a discarded song recorded for You Want It Darker album or maybe for an album meant to be published after that. Phillip Glass version is totally different and the one from the radio program is different too.

I haven't been able to find the video so I haven't heard the new recording of the song yet but I am wondering if maybe it is an outtake from the "Old Ideas" recording sessions. If you look at the last page of the insert booklet for the album you'll see a hand written song list and running times for the album that was changed prior to the album being released. On that list there are 3 songs that didn't make the final cut, "Treaty", "Thanks for the Dance", and "Puppets". I know "Puppets" was another song he played a demo of on KCRW at the same time as he did "Book of Longing", so maybe they were both recorded for "Old Ideas" but "Puppets" was the one of the two that LC thought was good enough to consider adding to the potential album song list? Hope wherever the recording came from that it will one day be released (along with many of the other demo recordings of different songs LC made mention of having been recorded over the years).

I am wondering if there is a recording available or will be one available of Leonard reading from the 'Book of Longing' without music. I ask this as I was at the MAC exhibit last week in Montreal and one of the exhibit rooms had this recording. It was a brilliant and beautiful thing to experience. You pressed a key of the piano and held your finger down and then you would hear Leonard reciting a poem from the Book. Each key was connected to another reading. I melted and would have stayed longer but there were people waiting to get in.
Thanks
Leslie

I am wondering if there is a recording available or will be one available of Leonard reading from the 'Book of Longing' without music. I ask this as I was at the MAC exhibit last week in Montreal and one of the exhibit rooms had this recording. It was a brilliant and beautiful thing to experience.

They had envisioned a kind of interactive sound machine that would allow the public to hear one of Cohen’s poems each time they pressed a key on a keyboard. After months of frustration came a surprise intervention: Cohen’s manager gave the artists access to sound files of Cohen reading nearly 200 poems from his collection Book of Longing, which he recorded himself.
The recordings had never been published and they felt surprisingly intimate. “It was like opening a magic box,” Cardiff tells artnet News. “You can hear his stomach rumbling [and] planes going over his studio.”

Maybe the tribute concert video has the same version of TBOL poem as is featured here too! They say nearly 200 poems are from BOL but my book has only 168 poems plus 42 sketches with words describing them. Maybe some of those words associated with the sketches have actually been recited too or maybe the other 32 poems were ones that were originally left out of the printed version of BOL poetry book. Interesting thought... either way, I have a feeling that we will get to hear at least some of them when they are officially released see here:

Be for real. Free yourself to find the real Self ~~ MeHappiness is like learning the violin, the more you practice it the more it comes to you ~~ MeWithout the heart, there can be no understanding between the hand and the mind ~~ Gore Vidal